> From: fantasai [mailto:fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net]
> Alex Mogilevsky raised an issue in a discussion awhile back: specifically, what should
> the column progression direction be if the parent of the multi-column element belongs
> to an orthogonal flow with a block flow direction opposite to the multi-col element's
> inline direction?
>
> E.g. suppose I have a vertical Japanese document:
>
>
> | | | | | V
> | | | | | V
> | | | | | V
> | | | | | |
> | | | | | |
> <====
>
> Then I insert a horizontal (LTR) multicol element
>
> >>>-- >>>-- | | | | | V
> ----- ----- | | | | | V
> --A-- --B-- | | | | | V
> ----- ----- | | | | | |
> ----- ----- | | | | | |
> <====
>
> Is column A or B first in the logical order?
This is a very interesting question. I think the simple answer is "column A is first."
The long answer is a little more complicated.
If it were really multi-col where body text flows through columns, "column A is first" looks natural to me. I think this is pretty clear and isn't controversial at all.
On the other hand, I understand multi-col can be used for more creative purposes, and that makes it more difficult to answer. If author intends to put multiple ordered blocks using multi-col, it can be opposite. Here's a such example[1] where you can see how number flows.
Although such layout is more often seen in recent magazines than the former case, theoretically, I think the former case is the original intention of multi-col and the latter case should better be done using regions. This use case can be controversial though, because doing this kind of layout using regions might be difficult or sometimes not possible.
It'd be best if author can choose, if it's not too much.
If we need to choose which is more important, I'd choose A for the regular multi-col body text.
If I were to answer which is more commonly or widely used today, the question becomes really hard to answer. My instinct tells me B, but I don't have numbers, and I don't want to lose A which was in the original use case just because it's more common in magazines.
[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-archive/2012Jun/0045.html
Regards,
Koji